Galatians 5:18 :

But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

The law is not required when you are being led by the Spirit. If you think about it, this makes a lot of sense. Why do you need a law to tell you what you already want to do? What would the law be keeping you from? There are many other reasons why a Christian who is being led by the Spirit is not under the law.

As I mentioned before, if you died with Christ already, the price has been paid for the penalty for breaking the law. In that sense you are already dead to the law. Because the penalty has been paid, the law doesn’t have any force.

I don’t believe that this is saying that we should not be aware of what is right and wrong. The Bible says that the law can teach us things about what God says are good and bad. It isn’t that we don’t have rules in our lives. The 10 Commandments are good rules, but we are not gaining ground with God by doing them. Basically, we don’t do them for the same reason as those who don’t have God’s blessing. The 10 Commandments were written as a way to teach its’ followers how to be blessed. In that sense they are directed to a different audience. We should be aware of this when we study that part of the Bible and not directly apply it as if God intended us to be there taking it to heart like those who were living at that time. We follow the rules of our Father’s house because we are already blessed to be His Children! We are not under the law! But, if we don’t follow the rules of our Father’s house, what does that say about our faith in the fact that we are His children? (See 1 John)

Are you planning to make a new year’s resolution this year? It’s not bad to have goals, but if you attempt to reach your goals by the power of your own flesh, you will probably fail and that includes new year’s resolutions. I don’t have to tell you about how common it is that people fail to keep their resolutions because you probably already are well aware.

If you attempt to keep your new year’s resolutions by trusting in the power of the Holy Spirit, if they are not ignorant of God’s word or against His will, you will be able to keep them. In that case you are not under the law but are being led by the Spirit.

I suggest that you make a “new life resolution” to walk by the Spirit from this time on as you follow God’s word every day of your life.